crosstown complications

EAST SIDE OBSERVER

BY ARLENE KAYATT

Schmoozing on the job — 6 p.m. on the day before the start of holiday gridlock season. Jumped in a taxi on 39th and Third going west. Rush-hour traffic picking up. Taxi approached 39th and Lex. Traffic cop, standing at the far corner, was busy talking to his partner, and not directing traffic. Without being signaled to stop, the taxi proceeded to move through the intersection. Suddenly, Police Officer G. Miller was on the job, pulling over the taxi driver and eventually handing him a citation. More than $100. Impervious to the fact that he wasn’t directing traffic and to the poor driver’s explanation, Miller, with a big grin, went back to his schmoozing. That may be a good way to generate money to fill city coffers and show the boss you’re on the job. Not. We’ve been that route before. Traffic police should be directing traffic so that tickets aren’t necessary and traffic keeps moving. We don’t need quotas. We don’t need police officers not doing their job. We don’t need hard working taxi drivers prey to the practice. And we don’t need passengers being held up when the taxi’s pulled over.

9 and counting — New York Post’s Cindy Adams off her ninth annual Blessing of the Animals Sunday, Dec. 3, at 2 p.m. at Christ Church United Methodist Church at 520 Park Ave. She’ll be there with her Yorkie, Juicy. People bring your pets. Pets bring your people. No solos. Bring the pooch, the cat, the gerbil, the bird, and don’t forget the goldfish. They’ll all be blessed by Christ Church Senior Minister Stephen Bauman and Central Synagogue Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein. No RSVPs. Come early. Or SRO. The place fills up real fast. And thanks to Cindy Adams for her advocacy on behalf of NYC’s animals. The event lasts ‘till 4 p.m.

Manhattan vista — The Parks Department is really making the city a premier place for parks. Last week, Steve Simon Manhattan, chief of staff for the department, joined Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver and local public officials and community leaders at the ribbon-cutting for the newly completed Andrew Haswell Green Park at 60th Street and York Ave at the top of the ramp at the site of the former heliport. We now have a new and idyllic place, surrounded by a large lawn with shrubbery, to take in the view of the river and the Roosevelt Island tram. And have a game of chess or checkers at one of the tables.

Nashville, New York — Just before Thanksgiving Nashville looked like New York — well, Manhattan anyway. Not only is there a West End Avenue and Broadway in the country music capital, but members of New York’s judiciary broke bread with Nashville’s Mayor Megan Barry at a reception held by the New York State Bar Association’s Torts, Insurance Compensation Law Section, honoring Barry with an award presented by Justice George J. Silver. Joining Silver were Supreme Court Judges Tony Cannataro and Adam Silvera, and the UES’s newly elected Civil Court Judge Suzanne Adams. Here’s hoping that New York’s mayor, who’s not keen on Manhattan, will be as gracious to Nashville as Barry was to New York when Nashville’s Southern-themed restaurant and concert space, Opry City Stage, comes to Times Square in December.